Jodi Watkins

Who Is Jodi?

Jodi grew up in a small town called Fernandina Beach, Florida, just outside of Jacksonville, Florida on the east coast. Her upbringing was not much to fantasize about. She mostly began to fantasize what it would be like to disappear. 

Jodi was the only child of a woman named Diane and a man named “Billy.” At the age of 3, Billy was caught stealing a car (or so this is what her mom told her later in life). He had been in trouble with the law since an early age in and out of foster care and in the hands of the system. Diane was an empath. She always thought she could “save” the men she was around. Jodi never saw her dad again. 

When Jodi was 4 years old, her mom met another man - Michael. He was a shrimper and seemed nice enough...at first. Jodi doesn’t remember the details of their relationship, but in 1984, when Jodi was 6, Diane and Michael were married. Jodi remembers a lot of fighting. She distinctly remembers fighting and drinking the day of the wedding. However, those memories are pretty vague. As a child, Jodi learned early on to suppress and move forward. 

The violence worsened over time, Jodi’s mom began to drink heavily, and regular beatings were part of it all. It was so bad that in 1985, Michael threw a large trash can at Diane and caused internal bleeding into Diane’s uterus that was carrying their child. Jodi remembers her mom coming into her room, crying. At the age of 7, not knowing what to do, Jodi called her grandma. Her grandparents lived in Jacksonville and knew of the situation. Jodi’s grandma told her to call 911 and they would be on the way. 

A few days later, Jodi remembers being told her sister died and was buried. Her mom almost died, so it was between saving her mom or saving the child. They chose to save Diane. Her sister’s name was Morgan and she is buried at Bosque Bello Cemetery in Fernandina Beach. 

The rest of Jodi’s childhood involved violence, drugs, alcohol, death, and even molestation. This was all normal to Jodi. It became part of who she was. She knew that she would never allow a man to lay hands on her like this. She hated watching her mom take the beatings and mental abuse. This man was horrible. Nevertheless, since her mom never pressed charges against him, no matter how bad the beatings were, there was nothing the police could do. There was nothing Jodi could do. 

There were good times and bad - mostly bad. At age 15, Jodi moved out. She also began writing at this time to help through the difficult situations she was facing. At age 16, her mom begged her to move back in. That same year, after traveling to visit some family in California, Jodi was left at the Jacksonville airport and had to find a place to stay. Her Junior year in high school was mentally difficult. She tried to keep her grades up, but in her Senior year, with the inconsistency in her life, she failed classes, had to sit the bench in basketball, and lost her scholarship to Duke University - one she had worked really hard for. This set the stage for what was to come - many more years of just wondering what her purpose in life was. She couldn’t “fit in” no matter how hard she tried and she was unable to form any type of relationship with a man because every time she did, she got hurt. She came not to trust men and to be lost in her own spiral. She turned to alcohol and the gym to “numb the pain.” 

Jodi finally found life in her 40’s. She began a journey like no other. She learned to heal. This was something she had never really done before - forgiving herself, forgiving those who hurt her, and learning to move forward, share her story, and encourage others. 

Jodi the Student

Jodi always knew she would go to college. After graduating high school, she moved to Gainesville, Florida and began pursuing a degree in Sports and Exercise Science. She also planned to play basketball for the Santa Fe Community College Lady Saints. She was working full time and partied a lot. Sleep wasn’t something she did much, but she was enjoying her new life. 

After learning she would not be able to play for the Lady Saints, Jodi went into yet another downward spiral. She didn’t have a lot of self esteem and again was trying to find purpose in life. The partying became much more and it got to the point where her studies began to suffer. By the grace of God, through working three jobs - one at a gym, one at a hotel, and one as a male entertainer/dancer - going to jail, somehow dodging the Army, and learning of her hero’s (grandfather’s) death in 1998, she somehow managed to get her Associate’s degree. By this time, she had accumulated a ton of credit card debt and was just spending money she didn’t have. She spent a night in jail because she stole some money from one of the places she worked at and got caught - she never claimed to be a good criminal. 

Throughout the rest of her life, she continued to go to school. She received a bachelor’s degree in 2007 in Business Management through the University of Phoenix, while stationed in England. Between 2008-2010, she was taking prerequisites to apply for the Interservice Physician Assistant Program through none other than Duke University. When that door shut, she began taking prerequisite courses for nursing while starting on her MBA as well. When the nursing school door shut, she pivoted and went to school to become a certified medical lab tech. She also became a certified personal trainer during this time and nutrition specialist. She received her MBA in 2017 and is now looking to begin her doctorate. 

Jodi the Veteran

On January 5, 2000, at the age of 21, after more trauma and instability in her life, Jodi enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and flew to San Antonio, Texas for basic training. She enlisted “Open Electronics” with zero electronics background. She thought she would be learning a new skill and work on computers. She ended up working on the C-130 Hercules. During technical training at Biloxi, Mississippi, Jodi met a man named Tori Watkins. When she met Tori, she was still in another relationship with someone who had hurt her emotionally as well. She still didn’t know how to form a relationship at this point, but somehow, she and Tori made it work. After tech school, Jodi was stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas and Tori headed to Aviano Air Base, Italy. While they tried to make the distance work and Jodi even went to Aviano that same year to visit Tori, eventually, they decided to part ways. Jodi turned more to alcohol, partying, writing, and playing basketball to numb any pain or stress in her life. She and Tori would get back together in 2003 during one of Jodi’s deployments. She reached out to Tori after finding out her mom was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. They began a friendship again which would eventually evolve. In 2005, Jodi was invited to apply to be an instructor at RAF Mildenhall, England. She and Tori were closer now (he was at Ramstein Air Base, Germany by this time). On December 28, 2005, they were married. They spent the first year apart by orders. Jodi was working on her bachelor’s degree and playing basketball for the women’s base team by this time. In 2007, shortly after Tori was stationed in England to be with his wife, the Air Force awarded Jodi a Humanitarian Assignment when one of her mom’s doctors wrote a letter stating her mom had contracted HIV and was terminal within six months. This began a rocky marriage for the new couple. Tori and Jodi were stationed at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, two hours away from Jacksonville, Florida, where Jodi’s mom still lived. 

After taking care of her mom for 2 years and being at the mercy of a flawed healthcare system, Jodi realized she wanted to go into a medical field so she could make an impact and change the way healthcare for lower income individuals was provided. She began working on prerequisites for Physician Assistant School. She also was learning nutrition to help her mom and clear out some of the medications that were in Diane’s medicine cabinet. Jodi spent those two years driving back and forth from Valdosta to Jacksonville after working nights, taking her mom to doctors appointments and whatever else. She was her caregiver, but was also active duty military and going to school. 

Jodi found out she was pregnant in April of 2009. In September, while she was taking finals, her mom suddenly was admitted to the ICU at Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville. Two days later, Diane was gone. Jodi would give birth to Jasmine Watkins on December 30, 2009 - three weeks after spreading Diane’s ashes at Fort Clinch State Park in Fernandina Beach. Diane’s peace was the ocean. This is where she wanted to be. 

The years after that, Jodi spent having doors shut in her face, missed opportunities, and was just absolutely lost. She ended up back on the flightline in 2011, but she knew there had to be more. After missing a core prerequisite for nursing school during a deployment, Jodi ended up in the Air Force Reserve recruiter’s office, looking for other options. She wanted a medical career. That same year, she took the core nutrition course she had missed, became a certified personal trainer and nutrition specialist, and was accepted into the Reserves as a Medical Lab Tech. This was supposed to be it for her. 

The night before Jodi was set to leave for her new Tech School and head back to San Antonio, Texas, Tori received orders to Okinawa, Japan. Jodi contacted her unit there at Moody Air Force Base and they told her she could head on to San Antonio. That is exactly what she did. She packed her car and left her family yet again to pursue her goal. This time, failure was not an option. 

Jodi graduated from tech school after her Phase 2 of training at Eglin Air Force Base. Jasmine went to live with Jodi during that time so Tori could get their house in order to get packed up to head to Japan. The family was yet again separated. 

In April 2015, Jodi became a Certified Medical Lab Technician. She worked hard for it and was excited for the new journey. However, because she chose to bring her family back together and move to Okinawa to be with her husband, Jodi had to put it on hold. Her unit wouldn’t support her working in Japan and she could not fly back every month due to the high airline ticket. In 2016, after fighting as much as she could and trying to find a way to continue her career (she even volunteered at the local base labs), Jodi was finally forced to go inactive in the Reserves. This is where her career in the Air Force and as a lab tech ended. Again, what was her purpose in life? 

Jodi the Personal Trainer

In 2011, after a bout of depression, Jodi began attending Zumba classes in San Antonio, Texas. Up to this point, she was always into fitness. Even after two knee surgeries on her right knee (the last one in December 2010), Jodi still wanted to move. She loved to dance, so Zumba was great for her. Nevertheless, after moving back to Georgia to be with her family, there wasn’t a class she could attend regularly due to her crazy work schedule. Jodi decided to become a licensed Zumba Instructor and teach her own classes. She still did not conform very well, so her classes intertwined dance with squats, push-ups, burpees, and even weights (before Zumba made that a thing). Jodi often liked to color “outside the lines.” 

In 2012, after her third right knee surgery, she was out of commission for about 8 months. She had to do a ton of rehabilitation and she really grew fond of what she was learning. She was learning things she could have done to prevent some of her injuries. By this time, she also had two shoulder surgeries (right in 2003 and left in 2008). She decided to go into personal training. Personal training was easy for Jodi. She loved being able to work with the women who came to her. She had experiences that gave her an edge. She was helping people - something she always wanted to do. Nevertheless, Jodi didn’t know this was her true calling. So, she kept chasing everything else. Everything she was trying just was not working out. Personal training, however, was always there for her. The door was always open. All she had to do was walk in. 

Jodi is currently disabled and has pain and degeneration in most of her body. She has worked with many professionals over the years - physical therapists, chiropractors, etc. - and learned from them as well. This is why Jodi is able to work with people who are coming off rehabilitation programs and who are being seen by chiropractors. She also works with the other professionals to ensure the client is being fully taken care of. This is her purpose. The experiences she’s had gave her an edge in the personal training industry. 

Jodi now operates her online fitness app and has a great team, who build customized workout programs. Jodi mentors her team based on her own experiences so all clients get top-notch service. At 2BEpic, quality of service is valued more than quantity of people. Her company desires to work with good people who are easy to work with and who want a life-altering experience. 

Jodi the Nutrition Coach

In 2008, Jodi’s mom, Diane, was getting sicker and sicker. Jodi finally realized that her medications were not being tracked by her medical doctors and her prescriptions were interfering with one another. They were having a truly negative impact on her health. Jodi took a Pharmacology course and also began doing research on the effects of nutrition on Multiple Sclerosis, hyperthyroidism, and bipolar disease - three of the things she had been diagnosed with not to include HIV. While she learned a lot that year, it didn’t all really begin coming together until 2013 and beyond. Jodi kept wanting to learn more. 

In 2016, Jasmine was diagnosed with ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Of course, she was prescribed medication. Jasmine was miserable. The effects of the medication were too much for her - even at the lowest dosage. Jodi could not just stand by and watch her daughter suffer. She began to research nutrition and diagnoses such as autism, ADD, and ADHD. She confronted the pediatrician with her research. The pediatrician told Jodi she would know more about how nutrition affected disease and told her she could try whatever she found. Of course, this is exactly what Jodi did. 

Jodi now is versed in the lifestyle concept of nutrition. She teaches people how to eat foods that serve their bodies more. She teaches them about habits and how to love themselves. In turn, as people begin to love themselves and want better out of life, they begin to eat better foods, drink more water, and take better care of themselves for the long haul. Jodi carries the following certifications in nutrition: Nutrition Specialist, Sports Nutrition Specialist, and Nutrition Coach. She also works with expectant mothers and moms who are breastfeeding in order to help them get enough fuel and nutrients for their bodies during those times. 

Jodi the Life/Health Coach

In 2013, Jodi also became a certified Health Coach. She knew she wanted people to have more from their programming. When she formed her company, 2BEpic Fitness and Nutrition, LLC, in July 2017, it was with the premise that people would get real, lasting results through the coaching process. She taught people how to embrace the journey of health and make it part of their lives. 

In 2019, after moving back to Jacksonville, Florida, out of the military, separated from Tori once again, and living as a single mom who needed to pay bills, Jodi encountered something she never had to worry about before - lack of clients. She never had to market or search for clients. 

She wanted to learn so she took a marketing class and also spent over $10K in business coaching. This all led her to be even more broke and not serve her clients to the best of her abilities, as she once had. Everything seemed to be falling apart. 

What came out of that was an amazing journey. Jodi literally hit a brick wall mentally. She fell to her knees one day while Jasmine was in school and just prayed to God that if he was there, he would help. She had nothing left mentally. 

A few months later, she realized she was helping people in a completely different way. She was sharing her life and this was helping people. She was helping people who were battling with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), on the verge of giving up, people who said they didn’t know how to love themselves, and she realized something very important - everything starts with our minds. The journey is continuous. We must embrace it and stay the course. She allowed God into her life and began a spiritual journey like no other. She now has a women’s support group called “Spiritual Awakening - Women of Faith.” She knows there is more for those who are willing to let go and allow themselves to experience an amazing life filled with purpose. Jodi was finally able to get there, so she now can encourage others to do the same. The journey is difficult, so Jodi has now become the voice of reason for those who come to her. 

Jodi the Author

Jodi was working with a business coach in the beginning of 2019. This person helped Jodi devise a system that would be her health coaching system. It was all based on this question: what do you help people with and what does your program encompass? It was simple. Everything starts with the mind. We must believe we can do it. We must learn to forgive ourselves and love others. We must learn how to manage our time better in order to incorporate a more productive life filled with everything we desire to do and have - to include health. We have to learn self care. We must also embrace nutrition and learning how to fuel our bodies right. We need to move each day and take care of the body we have. We also must learn how to stay the course, also known as consistency. We must have the mindset in place to endure hard times. Jodi has started over in her journey more times than she can count. She has been knocked down. While she came close to quitting, she remembered her gift for writing. It’s what got her through difficult times as a child and throughout her military career. 

Jodi attended a workshop that taught people how to write a book. She used the system and these were the chapters: mindset development, time management, self care, nutrition basics, exercise, and consistency. She put her daughter on the front cover, named it “Reclaim Your Life,” and got to work. However, as Jodi continued to endure her spiritual journey, the book became a spiritual wellness book that encompassed verses from the Bible. 

Jodi finished Reclaim Your Life the end of 2019 and it was officially published in March 2020. During this time, Jodi also wrote a very intimate piece about her upbringing in a book called, “If She Can - Encouraging Stories of Fire and Fight. This was a compilation of sixteen authors’ stories. It was not a story Jodi planned to share how she shared it and as in depth as she shared it. Nevertheless, it allowed her to let it go little by little. Both of Jodi’s books can currently be found at https://linktr.ee/jodiwatkins. 

Jodi has also shared her poetry with a songwriter and good friend in Charleston, South Carolina named Anthony Smalls. She also has many more book titles down. Jodi also writes blogs and has been invited to write articles for local magazines as well. She is finally using her gift of writing for much more and she loves every moment of it. Every time someone gives her feedback from her books, it makes her feel good. Helping people gives Jodi life. Writing is just another avenue to help those she is meant to serve.  

Jodi the Speaker

In 2011, Jodi got on stage for the first time and shared some poetry she wrote after being relieved from Physician Assistant school. It helped her heal a little through that process because she worked so hard to get there and felt she had let her mom and her family down. In 2012, while in training for the military, she again got on stage and shared some of her poetry. While people told her she needed to keep sharing, she didn’t feel comfortable at that time to continue. She simply had not developed the mindset to share her deepest memories. 

She began to hide behind fitness and got into bodybuilding. She did not want the world to know just how flawed she was. However, she was still drinking heavily when she would go out and still had issues loving her husband. She still didn’t know what love was exactly. She hid behind a facade. She had a look and that’s all she needed. She shared things with certain people, but not to the masses. 

While in Japan, Jodi taught nutrition workshops and boot camp classes. She was speaking a lot - but no one really knew her at this point. She wasn’t ready to share. She had suppressed so much that she wore a permanent mask for everyone around her. No one knew that inside she was dying. She was depressed. 

In 2019, Jodi began her true speaking career by sharing experiences and learning to heal. She had no idea how amazing it could feel to shed the burdens she had been carrying so long. Her first speaking invitation was for a breakfast held by Emergency Pregnancy Services in Jacksonville, Florida. She spoke about the abortion she had in 1999, just before entering the Air Force. She spoke about how guilty she felt when she had to go back to the clinic so they could “finish the job.” Basically, the fetus wasn’t completely extracted the first time around. She held onto that guilt for 20 years. She never disclosed that pregnancy in the military and had not talked about it until a few months before saying it to the audience. The point was to let others know how having an abortion can impact you for the rest of your life. It was not something she realized was happening, but it was something she needed to come to terms with in order to allow herself to be happy. She has had to allow herself to share this story more, because she wasn’t healed just by talking about it one time. She now realizes her story can help others who either had an abortion or may be thinking about having one. No one talks about the mental anguish that occurs after the fact - the guilt, the shame. Jodi wants others to know they’re not alone and she plans to do more to support others who may be going through what she has gone through all this time - learning to forgive herself. 

Jodi now speaks about topics such as mindset and how to begin the journey of becoming limitless and releasing guilt. She also talks about everything in her book, Reclaim Your Life. It’s about scheduling things out, not being overwhelmed, giving ourselves some grace, learning how to say no to some people, learning how to love ourselves, how to eat to our bodies’ needs and drink enough water, how to begin an exercise schedule and stick to it - virtually anything that involves life, Jodi talks on it. The one thing most people didn’t know until recently though, is that when Jodi published her book, she was still battling depression and wanted to leave something behind if she left this earth. She didn’t want to be here anymore - still. It only got worse from there. The publisher was dishonest and didn’t look out for Jodi’s best interest. However, Jodi is grateful for that experience. She is now able to share this with others as well to help them make sound decisions when it comes to publishing. 

Jodi is a voice for domestic violence and was named the Vice President for a local non-profit that is on a mission to help women get out of toxic relationships and give them temporary housing so they can get back on their feet and be amazing moms and people. She speaks on being the child of a relationship that involved drugs, alcohol, mental instability, and violence - basically everything she lived. Jodi also advocates for veterans and helps them transition into the civilian world, whether planned or not. Jodi uses everything she has and is on a mission to help others not have to endure what she endured. She also includes God in her talks and shares her experiences and her spiritual journey and how necessary it was to lead her to where she is now. She allows God to use her in ways she never imagined possible. 

Jodi - From Survivor to Conqueror

While Jodi’s story is not any worse than many others out there, her story is what makes her who she is. Time and time again, she has been called by her peers a survivor. However, survival mode isn’t a good place to be. Jodi knows that all too well now. The more she continues to share and stand up for the mission at hand, the more amazing things are happening. She has learned how to get out of her own way, put her faith first in everything she does, and conquer things one step at a time. Just as she helps her clients do, Jodi continues to take the journey day in and day out. She locks arms with those who come to her and she literally takes the journey with them. She has become the confidant for those in need. Her stories have the ability to impact lives on a level she never imagined. She is built for this now. She is ready. She feels unstoppable. She wants others to have the opportunity to feel this way. She’s going from survivor to conqueror. 

While Jodi knows she can’t help those who are where she used to be - not ready - she desires to do her part in the community and when requested, she shares her story and helps those who are ready. All they have to do is show up. As they work together as a team, everything else comes together over time. 

Jodi the Entrepreneur

During the era of Covid-19, Jodi used her time to do things she was putting off. She started a podcast called Breaking Barriers Now. She got into a great network marketing company that put her with a ton of forward thinking people. She collaborates on a massive level. She serves with a few non-profits she was led to in her community and also is a ghostwriter, writing coach, and community leader for an amazing collaborative platform called Convene Communities. She is patient and desires to form the entity, Breaking Barriers, Inc. as the corporation that would eventually house everything Jodi is involved in when the time is right. She gives God all the glory for everything in her life and for the blessings that are yet to come. He saved her multiple times as the world around her was crumbling. 

The kid from Fernandina who always just wanted a “job” used all the doors that shut to propel her into her purpose. She realizes that in all things - life, health, business, etc - we only limit ourselves. 

Jodi believes in taking risks, failing, getting back up, wiping herself off, and continuing the journey. She wants to have control over her own destiny. She lived enough of her life allowing others to control what she did. Now she feels like it’s her turn. She wants to take as many people with her as possible. 

Jodi has always believed in teamwork. She is a natural leader and team player. She asks for feedback and always has an open door policy. Jodi didn’t find entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship found her! 

Please reach out to Jodi by contacting her at https://linktr.ee/jodiwatkins. Thank you.